Changi International Airport Butterfly Garden

Located at the Departure transit lounge of Singapore Changi International Airport Terminal 3 on Levels 2 and 3, the Butterfly Garden is the first in an airport and home to more than 1000 butterflies.  Be prepared to be enthralled by the various colorful butterflies flying around and learn about their life cycle whilst waiting for your flight out of Changi International Airport.

Changi International Airport Terminal 3 Butterfly Garden

Capacity of the Butterfly Garden

If you are on transit in Singapore and a nature lover, Singapore Changi International Airport allows you to slow down and take some time to refresh yourself with the soothing calls of nature no matter which terminal you are in.

Butterfly Garden - lovely colours

Butterfly Garden - lovely designs

Terminal 1 boasts the Cactus Rooftop Garden and Water Lily Garden.  The Sunflower Rooftop Garden and Orchid Garden are sure to cheer you up in Terminal 2.  Not to be outdone, Terminal 3 has its own Koi Pond and Butterfly Garden.

Beautiful design

Lovely colours

Iridescent colors

Great patterns on wings

Colours, colours everywhere

At the Butterfly Garden, be greeted by as many as 40 species of butterflies during the various seasons of the year.

Butterfly feeding

Butterfly feeding

Immerse yourself in the lush greenery and appreciate the various flowering plants.  Look out for some of the carnivorous plants of Singapore.

Carnivorous plants at the Butterfly Garden

A great haven especially for nature photographers where you can get pictures of the butterflies up close resting, flying and feeding.

Butterflies feeding 

Admired up close

Check out the 6-metre grotto waterfall, a lovely treasure of a gem.

Grotto waterfall

Spanning two floors

Learn more about the life cycle of butterflies at the educational corner.

Butterfly pupa

Butterfly just out of pupa

Butterfly just out of pupa, waiting for wings to dry

Do note that the butterflies are most active between 10am - 4pm.

Feeding time at the Butterfly Garden

Great place to admire the butterflies close up

Love admiring the patterns and designs of the wings

More about the butterflies' wings

If you are fortunate enough, you may have a butterfly or two landing on you.

Butterfly on head

Don't miss the Butterfly Garden at Singapore Changi International Airport.  Best of all, there is no admission fee.  A great unique experience indeed!

Singapore Changi International Airport Butterfly Garden

KLM Business Class

To Bali on KLM Business Class

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines

Our Bali vacation was a result of our Europe Vacation Package in December last year.  As we were given a complimentary ticket to Bali via KLM Royal Dutch Airlines to be used by March latest, this resulted in our trip today.

At Singapore Changi International Airport KLM counter, we were told that we needed to do the check-in ourselves at the nearby self service kiosks.

Self service check-in at Singapore Changi Airport

We noticed that quite a number of passengers had trouble with the self service check-in and worst of all, there were no staff around to assist. 

Fortunately for us, we managed to clear the check-in for our group of four with no major hiccups. The only setback was that one person in our group was seated away from the others.

Approaching the staff at the KLM counter where we had to check-in our luggage to change our seats so that we could be together, we were told to check with the staff at the boarding gate.

When we were at the boarding area, we once again approached the KLM airlines staff and waited for them to make the necessary changes.  To our surprise and delight, our group of four were all upgraded to the KLM Business Class.

WOW!  That made our day!  :D

KLM Business Class section

Enjoying the unexpected upgrade

Nice and spacious

Nice little amenity bag for every business class passenger

The journey was smooth on the whole and we enjoyed the time in our business class seats though we had problems locating the point for attaching the earpiece.

Our menu:-

The Menu

A napkin was placed on the table before the appetiser and dessert were served on a tray with warm bread rolls.  Later, the main course was served.  We enjoyed our meal and if we had known that we were going to be upgraded, we would not have eaten anything before boarding the flight.

As for the meal, here is the appetiser and dessert served together...

Spicy Smoked Lamb and Chocolate Mocha Cake

Main course:-

Roasted Garoupa Fillet

The food somehow tasted better here in the business class section.  :P

Roasted Chicken Forestiere

Towards the end of the journey, the flight stewardess came around with a tray of porcelain Dutch souvenir and we could select the design we liked.

Dutch souvenir given to all KLM Business Class passengers

Overall, though it was a short journey from Singapore to Bali, we enjoyed the sleeper seat with the 150 degree incline at the KLM Business Class.  It was definitely a great start to our Bali vacation.



Bookmark & Share

Underwater Friends At Singapore Changi International Airport

Singapore Changi International Airport serves over 80 international airlines flying to some 200 cities in 60 countries. With approximately 5,000 arrivals and departures every week, over 37 million passengers pass through each year. Singapore Changi Airport is also becoming a shopping haven with over 40,000 square metres of commercial space.

Here are a few pictures taken of the Underwater Friends Theme at Singapore Changi International Airport in June 2010.

Underwater Friends

This is a lesson in creativity where different parts of various plants are used to create some of our underwater friends such as crabs, turtles, seahorses and jellyfishes.

Singapore Changi Airport

Enjoy Singapore Changi International Airport's version of Underwater Friends!

Underwater Friends:- Simply beautiful and with lots of creativity and imagination!

Bookmark & Share

Narita Village 9 Jun 2010

Our main purpose in flying to Los Angeles is to attend the Sex, Passion and Enlightenment workshop from 12th – 14th June 2010 which will be held in Crowne Plaza Hotel LA Airport.

One of the cheapest airfares we could find online was by Delta Airlines. There were other cheaper airfares but with unavailable seats on the dates we selected. We finally decided to book our flight on Delta Airlines.

Our itinerary was as follows:-
9 Jun DL280 Singapore – Tokyo Narita 0545 hrs / 1400 hrs
9 Jun DL646 Tokyo – Honolulu 2115 hrs / 0935 hrs
9 Jun DL1558 Honolulu – Los Angeles 2125 hrs / 1745 hrs

Singapore Changi International Airport

We left home at 0300 hrs and arrived at Singapore Changi International Airport just after 0330 hrs. As the flight to Tokyo was overbooked, we were asked if we would like to standby and travel by ANA flight leaving at 0825 hrs. Since we were going to be having a seven hours transit period in Tokyo Narita, we agreed as it would allow us to reduce our transit period. We would also be issued a USD400 voucher each for future booking of airline tickets with Delta Airlines.

Just before 0500 hrs, Delta airlines staff thanked us for volunteering to go on a different flight but informed us that we could carry on with our original flight.

Recycling at Singapore Changi Airport

Taking just over seven hours, we arrived in Tokyo Narita airport on what was a smooth flight. Since we were going to be on transit for seven hours, we tried our luck and asked the airport staff if we could get out of the airport. We were advised to use the various facilities in the airport. However upon probing further, we were informed that if we wanted to move around Narita or the city, we should be back at the airport by 1900 hrs.

WOW! Narita, here we come… This was unexpected good news for us. By the time we cleared immigration and customs, it was already 0300 hrs.

We proceeded to Keisei Line to purchase the train ticket to Narita village. Costing 250 Yen (USD2.90), it took us a little more than 10 minutes to arrive in Narita.

Purchasing ticket for Keisei Line

Ticket for Keisei Line

Taking a slow walk to Narita Shinshoji Temple, we discovered that many of the shops were closed. It was surprising indeed. We were hoping to see some stallholders in action getting the unagi (eel) ready. We had seen that the last time we were in Narita san. However since it was already afternoon, there was not much activity.

Even the senbei (Japanese rice crackers) shops had stopped making the popular senbei biscuits. So if you wish to see more action, visit Narita san in the morning.

This monument can be seen at thebeginning of the street leading to the Naritasan Shinshoji Temple.

Senbei crackers

We were fortunate that the weather was cool as we took a stroll and made some purchases.

Naritasan Shinshoji Temple, the highlight of the stroll

Steps to the entrance of Narita Shinshoji Temple

Beautiful flowers along the roadside

Old shophouses

Statue near the entrance of the street leading to Naritasan Shinshoji Temple

Great shopping at any of the 100 yen shops

Next we went to the bus stop and took the express bus no. 6 to Aeon Mall, a huge shopping mall, ten minutes away by bus.

At the bus stop waiting for the bus to Aeon Mall Narita

We had a late lunch of yakisoba (Japanese fried noodles) and tako (octopus balls) where the set meal cost 830 Yen (USD9.65). Tasty and fragrant, they would have tasted better without the mayonnaise.

The device that beeps when your food order is ready for collection... Interesting!

Tako

Yakisoba

Aeon Narita Mall

Picnic Court where we had our meal

Some interesting shops in Aeon Mall includes Daiso, where all items cost 100 Yen (USD1.16), Jusco, a supermarket cum department store and various other specialty stores.

Returning to the airport the same way we came, that is, by bus followed by Keisei train, we were back in Narita airport by 1845 hrs.

On board the Keisei line

Keisei line train

Here we had some time to walk around the airport before proceeding to the boarding gate area to await boarding for our 2115 hrs flight to Honolulu enroute to Los Angeles.

Bookmark & Share